ENDOMETRIOSIS: BETTY’S STORY: FOUR DOCTORS, FIVE DIFFERENT DIAGNOSES, FIFTEEN MONTHS OF PAIN
“I’m thirty-eight years old, and for most of my life, I’ve been healthy. When I got married thirteen years ago, my husband and I decided not to have children and I’ve never been pregnant. About fifteen months ago, lire changed for me. One morning I awakened with a burning pain and a feeling of vaginal pressure. I went to my gynecologist, who diagnosed vaginitis. To be certain, he took a few cultures, which came up negative. I was still in pain, but be had no solutions for me, and in fact, things got worse.
“I went to another doctor. He was cold and unsympathetic, and he tested me for chlamydia, a venereal disease. That test came out negative, too. He seemed to be annoyed with me and prescribed a series of creams and vaginal suppositories, which were useless. I began feeling worse, this time with rectal pain.
“I found a third gynecologist and this one said I was suffering from a ‘virus in the cells,’ Don’t ask me what this means because, with all his medical double-calk, I couldn’t get a clear answer from him. This doctor played around with pills and oral medication for a ‘fungus infection’ chat be next decided I bad. I was in horrible pain—in addition to having menstrual cramps—and so he did a sonogram. It showed nothing.
“Five months had now passed and the pain began to shift, this time clearly to my urinary tract. I went to a urologist who said I had stenosis [a narrowing] of the urethra. He dilated my urethra, a procedure which was a nightmare and caused tremendous pain. He also gave me a cream, which didn’t help. Worse, now—along with everything else—intercourse was painful!
“Contused, I actually went back to the second doctor I’d seen, who told me my uterus was suddenly tipping backward. He put me on Danocrine, which is a drug to suppress the disease, and after a few months on it. I’m beginning to feel better.
“In all, f saw four doctors. I felt they never cook my pain seriously until a year had passed and a laparoscopy proved that something was actually there. I reel such frustration over this since I know I’d have been in much better shape if the first doctor had taken me seriously and had known about endometriosis.”
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